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The  House  of  Peacock  in  1837 


July,  1922 


C.  D.  PEACOCK 

Jewelers  and  Silversmiths 

Established  1837 
State  and  Adams  Streets 

CHICAGO 
Foremost  Authorities  on  Pearls  and   Diamonds 


L 


Elijah  Peacock 

Founder  of  the  House  of  Peacock,  February,  1837 


Eighty-five  Years  of  Confidence 

It  is  particularly  fitting  that  Peacock's  should 
be  known  as  "The  Jewelry  Store  for  All  Chi- 
cago," as  well  as  for  all  the  people  of  the  Great 
Middle  West,  for  the  House  of  Peacock's 
started  with  Chicago,  suffered  with  Chicago 
through  its  great  fire  and  panics,  and  with 
Chicago  it  grew  from  a  very  modest  start  to  a 
great  enterprise. 

In  the  year  1837,  Chicago — a  village  of  some 
4,000  people — was  granted  a  Charter  and  be- 
came a  City.  Its  history  as  a  City,  dates  from 
1837.  And  it  was  in  1837  that  Elijah  Peacock 
founded  the  House  of  Peacock. 

Since  that  day  Peacock's  has  marched  forward 
with  Chicago. 

Looking  backward  over  Peacock's  records, 
many  of  which  are  ragged  and  yellow  with  age, 
one  finds  the  names  of  those  wonderful  pioneers 
who  dared  and  defeated  the  wilderness,  and 
the  names  of  those  men  and  women  who  played 
the  important  parts  in  the  development  of 
Chicago's  industrial  and  political  life. 

Among  them  will  be  found  Stephen  W.  Raw- 
son,  "Long  John"  and  Moses  Wentworth,  A.  G. 
Burley,  Stephen  F.  Gale,  Abram  Gale,  John  H. 
Kinzie,  Philo  Carpenter,  Matthew  Laflin,  H.  H. 
Kohlsaat,  Judge  Kohlsaat,  Leroy  T.  Payne, 


C.  D.  Peacock 


Allan  Pinkerton,  Orson  Smith,  Arthur  Dixon, 
Silas  B.  Cobb,  the  Seipps,  the  Rehms,  the 
Schoenhofens,  Mahlon  D.  Ogden,  Rev.  R.  W. 
Patterson,  H.  O.  Stone,  Norman  B.  Ream, 
John  Mohr,  Frank  Parmelee,  Philip  D.  Armour, 
Monroe  Heath,  Nelson  Morris,  Michael  and 
John  Cudahy,  Joseph  Medill,  N.  K.  Fairbank, 
George  M.  Pullman,  Marshall  Field,  Potter 
Palmer,  Gustavus  Swift,  Charles  T.  Yerkes, 
Harlow  N.  Higinbotham,  Gen.  John  A.  Logan, 
Gen.  Phil  Sheridan,  Lyman  J.  Gage,  D.  B. 
Fiske,  Franklin  MacVeagh,  Amos  J.  Snell, 
R.  T.  Crane,  John  B.  Drake,  Luther  Laflin 
Mills,  Mayor  Washburn,  Cyrus  McCormick, 
Fire  Chief  Denis  Swenie,  Ferdinand  W.  Peck, 
Wilbur  F.  Storey,  Peter  Schuettler,  Philetus 
W.  Gates,  Edson  Keith,  Mayor  Harrison,  Sr., 
Columbus  R.  Cummings,  Peter  Van  Schaack, 
Levi  Z.  Leiter,  Father  Flanagan,  H.  H.  Honore, 
and  countless  others  of  like  character  and 
standing. 

And  tracing  on  down  the  years  one  finds  the 
names  of  their  descendants,  many  of  them  still 
customers  of  the  House. 

And  so,  year  after  year,  as  Chicago  has  grown 
big  and  prosperous,  the  House  of  Peacock  has 
also  grown.  Fittingly,  and  properly  it  is  often 
called  "The  Store  for  All  Chicago,"  for  the 
history  of  no  other  Chicago  Store  is  more  com- 
pletely mingled  with  the  history  of  Chicago, 
than  is  Peacock's. 


Peacock's  in  1837 


Peacock's  in  1843 


CH  ICAGO 

— its   beginning 

Let  us  hark  back  and  briefly  review  the  old, 
yet  ever  new  and  inspiring  history  of  Chicago. 

The  early  French  explorers  found  the  Indians 
here  in  1673,  and  how  many  centuries  they  had 
lived  here  is  yet  problematical. 

Marquette  spent  the  winter  of  1674-5  in  a 
cabin  on  the  south  branch  of  the  river.  James 
Logan  mentions  in  his  report  to  the  Govern- 
ment in  1718  that  the  French  had  a  Fort,  or 
Stockade  here. 

A  San  Dominican  trader  built  a  log  cabin 
here  in  1777,  which  is  considered  the  beginning 
of  the  village  that  was  to  eventually  become 
Chicago.  In  1796  he  sold  his  log  cabin  to  a 
French  trader,  who  in  turn  sold  it  to  John 
Kinzie,  the  first  American  Chicago  settler  in 
1803,  and  where  he  lived  until  his  death  in  1828. 

In  the  treaty  between  the  U.  S.  Government 
and  twelve  tribes  of  Indians  in  1795,  the  Govern- 
ment was  to  have  several  pieces  of  land  for 
trading  Posts  and  one  of  them  is  thus  described: 

"One  piece  of  land  six  miles  square,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Chicago  River,  emptying  into 
Lake  Michigan,  where  a  fort  formerly  stood." 


Peacock's  in  1849 


Peacock's  in  1857 


Eight  years  later,  1803,  Fort  Dearborn  was 
built,  and  under  its  protecting  wing  slowly 
gathered  a  few  intrepid  souls. 

Shortly  it  became  a  small  settlement,  and  in 
1820 — seventeen  years  later,  boasted  of  a  dozen 
or  more  families. 

After  the  Black  Hawk  War  in  1833,  the  village 
began  to  grow  more  rapidly  and  the  first  census, 
that  of  1835,  gives  the  village,  including  many 
transients,  3,225  souls.  In  the  Fall  of  1837,  the 
population  had  increased  to  4,170.  The  city's 
area  in  1837  was  but  2.55  square  miles.  Today 
it  is  more  than  200  square  miles. 


Period  of  Growing  Pains 

Chicago's  period  of  greatest  early  prosperity 
was  from  1833  to  1837.  The  revulsions  and 
reverses  due  to  the  effects  of  the  panic  of  1837 
then  retarded  its  growth,  yet,  late  in  1837,  it 
again  began  to  jump  ahead  in  both  population 
and  material  wealth.  Thus,  from  an  isolated 
Colony  in  1833  of  some  five  or  six  families, 
clinging  to  a  lone,  solitary  military  Post  for 
protection,  dependent  for  subsistence  upon  the 
uncertain  arrival  of  some  chance  -vessel  from 
Mackinac,  between  1838  and  1847,  Chicago 
had  become  quite  a  mighty  city,  comparatively 


The  Vault  (No.  16),  all  that  remained 

of  Peacock's  store  after  the 

Chicago  fire  in  1871 


speaking,  and  was  teeming  with  a  busy  and 
enterprising  population,  and  the  centre  of  a 
widely  extended  and  flourishing  commerce. 

Chicago's  history  from  this  point  assumes  the 
virtue  of  a  romance.  It  becomes  difficult  to 
reconcile  to  the  mind  that  the  spot  now  covered 
with  sky-scraping  blocks  of  commercial  and 
financial  institutions,  hostelries,  stately  man- 
sions and  some  four  hundred  thousand  homes — 
the  second  city  of  America,  and  third  in  the 
World,  was  so  recently — a  short  85  years  ago — a 
low  and  marshy  plain,  over  which  roamed 
Indians  and  wild  beasts. 

It  would  indeed  have  required  a  Jules  Verne 
imagination  for  any  one  of  the  pioneers  of  1837 
to  have  foreseen  the  Chicago  of  today,  although 
John  Wentworth  in  his  newspaper,  "The  Demo- 
crat" around  1840,  wrote  a  number  of  most 
laudatory  editorials  on  the  "bustling  city"  of 
Chicago,  teeming  with  business,  etc.! 

Americans,  and  especially  Chicagoans  should 
never  forget  the  terrible  sacrifices  of  the  brave, 
stout-hearted  vision-gifted,  empire-building  early 
settlers,  who  laid  the  foundation  stone  of  this 
present  magnificent  structure — the  City  of  Chi- 
cago— nor  should  we  fail  to  appreciate  the 
efforts  of  those  enterprising  men  who  are  today 
still  making  history  and  adding  to  its  greatness. 


Corner,  Manufacturing  Room 


The  Vision  of  La  Salle 

How  inspirationally  prophetic  are  the  words 
of  the  great  explorer,  La  Salle,  in  speaking  of 
the  spot  at  the  confluence  of  the  Chicago  River 
and  the  Great  Lake,  the  site  of  the  present 
miraculous  city  of  Chicago,  when  he  said: 

"This  will  be  the  gate  of  Empire;  this  the 
seat  of  Commerce.  Everything  invites  to  action. 
The  typical  man  who  will  grow  up  here  must  be 
an  enterprising  man.  Each  day,  as  he  arises, 
he  will  exclaim,  'I  act,  I  move,  I  push,'  and 
there  will  be  spread  before  him  a  boundless 
horizon,  an  illimitable  field  of  activity.  I  would 
name  it,  from  the  very  nature  of  this  place 
— ago,  I  act,  and  circum,  all  around:  Circago." 

As  the  natural  gateway  and  shipping  port  of 
"The  World's  Bread  Basket,"  the  broad  ex- 
panse of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  it  cannot  fail 
but  become  one  of  the  greatest,  if  not  the 
greatest  Port  of  the  world.  In  fact,  there  are 
quite  a  few  men  of  vision  today  who  consider 
Chicago  still  in  its  infancy,  and  who  claim  that 
in  the  not  distant  future  she  will  double  her 
present  population,  her  present  boundaries,  and 
take  rank  as  the  World's  largest  city. 


Section  of  Polishing  Room 


The  Year  1837  Epochal 

The  year  1837  was  epochal  in  Chicago — not 
because  of  Elijah  Peacock's  arrival  in  February, 
but  because  America,  and  Chicago  particularly, 
was  in  the  throes  of  its  first  panic — (its  worst) — 
and  also  because  in  March  1837,  Chicago  was 
granted  a  charter;  arose  to  the  dignity  of  a  city, 
and  began  that  "push"  (right  in  the  face  of 
the  panic),  for  which  it  has  been  so  signally  and 
justly  noted  for  the  past  85  years. 

In  his  "Reminiscences  of  Early  Chicago," 
published  in  1902,  E.  O.  Gale,  says: 

"Elijah  Peacock  came  here  in  1837  and  en- 
gaged in  his  trade  of  Jeweler  and  Watch  Re- 
pairer, a  calling  that  had  already  descended 
through  three  generations,  following  the  English 
custom,  and  which  his  son,  Charles  (C.  D.), 
who  was  born  in  1838,  and  who  has  been  one 
of  our  leading  men  in  that  line,  tells  me,  will 
be  continued  indefinitely,  as  the  mantle  is 
slipping  from  his  shoulders  onto  his  sons." 

The  Chicago  Fire 

Seared  in  the  memory  of  many  of  our  present 
inhabitants  is  the  calamitous  holocaust  of  1871, 
which  raged  over  more  than  2,000  acres — nearly 


Corner,  Watch  Repair  Room 


three  and  one-third  square  miles,  claiming,  it  is 
estimated,  more  than  300  souls  and  close  to  two 
hundred  millions  of  dollars  worth  of  property. 

Upon  its  smoking  ruins  Chicagoans'  indomit- 
able "I  will"  spirit  quickly  began  the  building 
of  another  and  greater  Chicago. 

In  the  panic  of  1873,  Chicago  banks  alone 
among  those  of  the  larger  cities  continued 
steadily  to  pay  out  current  funds. 

The  Chicago  World's  Fair 

The  Columbian  Exposition,  better  known  as 
the  World's  Fair  in  1892-3  will  ever  remain  in 
history  as  one  of  the  greatest  commercial  feats 
of  any  nation.  It  covered  an  area  of  666  acres, 
at  an  estimated  total  cost  of  forty-three  millions. 
Its  wonderful  achievements  along  all  lines  as- 
tonished the  world.  One  building  alone — the 
Manufacturers'  Hall  covered  31  acres,  had  44 
acres  of  floor  and  gallery  space  and  could  seat 
300,000  people.  America's  Regular  Army  could 
have  been  comfortably  drilled  under  its  roof. 
The  Fair's  total  admissions  were  27,529,401. 

The  House  of  Peacock 

As  Chicago's  oldest  business  establishment  the 
"House  of  Peacock"  considers  it  an  honor  to 
be  so  closely  identified  with  its  wonderful  growth 


Section,  Engraving  Room 


in  its  85  short  years  as  a  municipality,  and  will 
always  esteem  it  a  privilege,  rather  than  a  duty, 
to  help  push! 

In  tracing  the  history  and  early  business 
moves  of  the  "Peacock"  store,  it  is  significant 
that  it  has  invariably  "followed  the  crowd"  in 
being  located  in  the  heart  of  the  city's  business 
district — even  as  it  is  today,  at  State  and 
Adams,  which  is  acknowledged  to  be  the  busiest 
retail  center  in  the  world. 

Chicago's  business  district  in  1837  was  on 
the  South  side  of  the  River,  so  Elijah  Peacock 
opened  a  palatial  (?)  frame  store  at  155^  Lake 
Street,  moving  in  1843  with  the  business  district, 
a  little  farther  West  to  195  Lake  Street;  then  to 
199  Randolph  in  1849,  which  had  become  the 
leading  retail  thoroughfare.  In  '54  to  '57  he 
was  at  205  Randolph.  The  great  conflagration 
of  1871  found  the  "House  of  Peacock"  at  221 
Randolph  Street,  and  the  fire  destroyed  every- 
thing, except  the  jewelry  vault.  After  the  fire, 
Peacock's  temporary  quarters  were  at  96  West 
Madison;  in  1873  the  store  was  at  State  and 
Washington  Streets,  and  in  1894  it  moved  to 
the  present  building  at  State  and  Adams,  which 
it  has  occupied  for  the  past  28  years. 


In  1903  the  business  was  incorporated  under 
the  laws  of  the  State  of  Illinois.  The  present 
officers  are  Robt.  E.  Peacock,  President;  W.  J. 
Bufnngton,  Vice-President;  Walter  C.  Peacock, 
Treasurer. 

The  first  "Peacock"  advertisement  of  record 
appeared  in  the  Democrat,  April  5,  1841,  and 
the  firm  has  advertised  ever  since,  being  prob- 
ably the  oldest  continuous  jewelry  advertiser  in 
America. 

The  Peacock  Business  Principles 

If  we  were  searching  for  a  slogan  to  go  over 
our  door,  we  would  choose  "The  Buyer  is 
Safe;"  for  the  high-minded,  conscientious  old- 
fashioned  business  honesty  that  has  always 
characterized  the  commerical  history  of  the 
name  of  "Peacock,"  for  many  generations  in 
England,  and  for  three  generations  in  Chicago — 
in  the  one  unbroken  line  of  business,  has  always 
been  considered  by  the  present  generation  in  the 
light  of  a  sacred  trust.  Absolute  fidelity  to  this 
trust  has,  more  than  any  other  one  thing,  en- 
abled it  to  achieve  that  enviable  position  it  now 
enjoys. 

Appreciating  its  responsibility  to  the  public, 
it  is  the  constant  aim  of  the  "House  of  Peacock" 
to  surpass  even  the  expectations  of  its  most 
discriminating  patrons. 


Historical  Briefs 


Chicago  was  chartered  March  4,  1837. 

First  Municipal  Election  was  held  in  Fall  of  1837.  709 
votes  were  cast. 

In  1830  there  was  a  sale  of  Canal  lots  (Chicago's  first 
lot  sale),  the  choicest  bringing  $50  to  $100. 

In  1832  Chicago  is  reported  to  have  had  about  100  in- 
habitants and  about  5  or  6  log  houses,  exclusive  of  the 
Fort. 

In  1837  the  Trustees  applied  for  a  loan  of  $60  (the  first 
loan  of  its  history),  to  drain  a  slough  on  Clark  Street, 
south  of  Washington.  The  broker  refused  the  loan, 
unless  the  notes  bore  the  personal  indorsement  of  Mr. 
E.  B.  Williams.  Mr.  Williams  promptly  endorsed. 

The  first  railroad  train  to  reach  Chicago  arrived  in  1852. 

The  first  boat  to  arrive  at  Chicago  was  a  Government 
Schooner  with  men  and  supplies  for  building  Fort  Dear- 
born, reached  Chicago  in  1803. 

The  first  Steamboat  reached  Chicago  with  'Government 
.troops,  supplies  (and  cholera)  for  the  Fort  in  July,  1832, 
to  quell  the  Black  Hawk  War. 

The  first  newspaper  of  Chicago  was  the  Weekly  American 
which  started  in  1836. 

Of  more  than  passing  interest,  considering  the  present 
H.  C.  of  L.  are  the  prices  that  prevailed  in  Chicago  in 
1837;  and  some  writers  state  that  the  high  taxes  and 
living  expenses  were  even  then  very  generally  discussed 
and  cussed: 

Butter  6c  a  Ib.  Venison  $1.50  a  carcass 

Beef  6c  a  Ib.  Flour  $3.00  a  barrel 

Ham  5c  a  Ib.  Wood  $2.00 

Grouse  $1.00  a  dozen  Good  Board  $2.00  a  week 

Quail  3c  each 


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Chica/o^-also  Peacocks 


